Radio Ownership tion, the station built its news product from Avg. Qtr. -Hour Revenue Share of the ground up, and it has continued to see OWNER STATIONS Share (in Millions) Total improvement in its news ratings, LaBonia Entercom 2 AM, 4 FM 28.0 $25.7 43.1% says. "Our whole brand is 'More News.' Clear Channel 2 AM, 5 FM 42.5 $23.9 40.1% We get right to the meat and potatoes," the Centennial Broadcasting 1 AM, 2 FM 11.3 $6.8 11.4% gm adds. Includes only stations with significant registration in Arbitron diary returns and licensed in New Orleans or immediate area. Ratings from Arbitron. Fall 1999 book: revenue and owner information provided by BIA Research. WGNO's rapid-fire news style, which packs about 25 news items into a half-hour WVUE's 9 p.m. newscast is followed by at7 a.m. and covers local issues including show, has drawn criticism from some com- another airing of Divorce Court, which the environment, crime and education. petitors. LaBonia defends the fast -paced leads into the half-hour 10 p.m. news Crescent City is hosted by the station's pub- newscasts as being both informative and program. The second late newscast is lic -affairs reporter, Kim Edwards. Joanna well -suited to younger viewers who want unusual for Fox affiliates, and there is talk Bellanger, program director for WUPL, more news but are pressed for time. in the market that WVUE may drop one says the program is designed to be less WGNO, which added a 6 p.m. newscast of the shows. stuffy than traditional public-affiairs fare last year, plans to launch a morning news, Hearst -Argyle Television purchased and is targeted at adults 18-49. probably from 5-7 a.m., at the end of 2002. NBC affiliate WDSU-TV last year and While WUPL carries no local sports, Emmis' Fox affiliate WVUE is also a installed Mason Granger as the property's the station is interested in acquiring rights significant player in local news program- gm. Granger has been credited with boost- to some minor-league baseball or hockey ming. The outlet finished second to ing WDSU's profile in the community by games. The New Orleans Zephyrs are the WWL at 5 p.m. in the February sweeps, participating in many local events, taking a farm team for Major League Baseball's with a 6.9 household rating/13 share. cue from WWL. Houston Astros, and the New Orleans WVUE's 6 p.m. newscast, which follows WUPL-TV, the UPN affiliate owned Brass is the market's pro hockey club. the syndicated Divorce Court, did not do by Paramount Stations Group, does not (The Brass play in the New Orleans Are- as well, finishing fourth in February. At 9 air locally produced news. The outlet does na, a new sports and entertainment com- p.m., WVUE's half-hour news finished produce a local public -policy show, Cres- plex that opened next to the Superdome well ahead of the syndicated Drew Carey cent City Magazine, which launched in Jan- last October.) on WUPL and Baywatch on WNOL. ry The half-hour program airs Sundays Among the off -net syndicated shows 0 WUPL will begin airing this fall are Spin Nielsen Ratings/New Orleans City, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Moesha. The station has also picked up The Pretender Evening and Late -News Dayparts, Weekdays and MTV's The Real World in syndication; both will air on weekends starting this fall. Another growing rival to WWL-TV's Time Network Station Rating Share dominance in the market is cable. Cable

5-5:30 p.m. CBS WWL 16.8 31 penetration in New Orleans is 74.3 percent, Fox WVUE 6.9 13 well above the 69.3 percent average for the NBC WDSU 4.9 9 top 50 U.S. markets. Cox Communications ABC WGNO 4.8 9 controls the market in the metro area, WB WNOL* 2.8 5 although it does not cover the entire DMA. PAX WPXL* 1.6 3 BellSouth also has a presence in the market. UPN WUPL* 1.5 WWL has a long-standing partnership with Cox to operate a 24 -hour cable net- 6-6:30 p.m. CBS WWL 19.5 31 work, WWL Newswatch 15. WWL:s daily NBC WDSU 6.7 11 newscasts are rerun in a loop on the cable Fox WVUE 5.9 9

WB WNOL* 4.2 7 channel. Some local media buyers say that ABC WGNO 3.5 6 their clients believe they can get a great UPN WUPL* 2.4 4 deal by buying the Channel 15 rebroadcast PAX WPXL* 1.1 2 and pay only $30 or $50 per spot, com- pared to $1,000 for the live news broadcast Late News on WWL. But Newswatch 15 advertisers 9-9:30 p.m. Fox WVUE 8.4 12 get a far smaller audience for their dollars. WB WNOL* 5.7 8 The New Orleans radio market, also UPN WUPL* 2.1 3 AibilikailA ranked No. 41 in the country, has consol- 10-10:30 p.m. CBS WWL 17.9 27 NBC WDSU 10.3 16 idated significantly over the past several Fox WVUE 4.9 7 years, with several local mom-and-pop ABC WGNO 4.8 7 operators getting acquired or squeezed WB WNOL* 4.3 7 out. Groupwide advertising buys in radio UPN WUPL* 2.1 3 are starting to catch on. "You will see bids PAX WPXL* 1.5 2 going to the group, not the [individual] 'Non -news programming Source: Nielsen Media Research, February 2000 station," says Media Direct's Reggie. "[Ad- vertisers] will say, 'We have x number of

40 Mediaweek May 8, 2000 www.mediaweek.com